The present disclosure relates to differential diagnosis through information maximization and benefit maximization.
During patient care, health care workers are faced with the problem of arriving at a diagnosis decision or action plan for diagnosis at multiple time instances, such as after observing patient's symptoms or after gathering new clinical findings from laboratory tests or other sources. These decisions are critical when making a diagnosis or determining a proper treatment for a patient. However, in most cases, there is no unique and clear diagnosis or obvious action plan. Even after a patient's medical history has been gathered and some tests performed, there can still be considerable uncertainty in many cases regarding the correct diagnosis or method of treatment. At all points in the diagnosis or decision process, the clinician is faced with numerous questions or options regarding what may be the best course of action. The clinician determines whether sufficient information has been collected so that a reliable diagnosis or decision can be rendered. In addition, the clinician must properly arrive at the correct diagnosis or decision while considering the most efficient use of resources.
The difficulty for decision-making applies to a diagnosis of an illness or disease, as well as any decision regarding further treatment or therapy for that illness or disease. Regardless of whether the clinician decision is for diagnosis or treatment, a decision is made based on a wide-range of considerations and based on a broad array of data that is available to assist in the decision. For example, the clinician faces many challenges while making a decision about therapy, such as which therapy to choose, when should therapy be chosen, or whether more information should be collected.
Specifically considering diagnosis, the clinician may use differential diagnosis. Differential diagnosis is a systematic method for diagnosing a disorder that lacks unique symptoms or signs, such as a headache. In differential diagnosis, the clinician considers possible causes before making a diagnostic decision. Often, the clinician must consider multiple causes of the observed findings. This is a process that can quickly grow in complexity if carried out thoroughly and comprehensibly.
It is not uncommon to find cases where there are many potential causes that could all explain a patient's condition. Likewise, there may be many available testing procedures given the specific patient's condition that have relatively unclear advantages over each other. The process can be complicated when medical research has not yet given clear cut results regarding the connection between the specific patient symptoms, tests, and diseases.
The decision about what causes (e.g., disorders) to consider may be influenced by the clinician's experience, judgment, preferences, and/or limited available information. These factors can be highly variable among medical practitioners. A more uniform, informed, and objective form of differential diagnosis may be highly beneficial for health care.